Seconds - the immediacy of taste, the crafting of chocolate, the brevity of blanching. Minutes -the exactitude of eggs, a fishy on a dishy, the wasabi window. Hours - the beauty of the bain-marie, taking stock, the slowness of sourdough. Days - the smoking habit, use-by date, fasting and feasting. Weeks - in defence of hanging, crafting beer, the maturing of cheese. Months - a taste of honey, keeping fat, freezing. Years - perfecting Parmigiano-Reggiano, jam n jam n, the pleasures of port. The Missing Ingredient is about what makes good food, and the first book to consider the intrinsic yet often forgotten role of time in creating flavour. Written through a series of encounters with ingredients, producers, cooks, shopkeepers and chefs, exploring everything from the brief period in which sugar caramelises, the days required in the crucial process of fermentation in so many foods we love, to the months of slow ripening and close attention that make a great cheddar, or the years needed for certain wines to reach their peak, Jenny Linford shows how, time and again, time itself is the invisible ingredient. Linford shows how paying attention to time in the kitchen and elsewhere improves our food, from the patient browning of meat to the long investment of many food producers in fields and storehouses around the world. The result is a joyful account of the vital role of time in our culinary lives, and a book to savour.

Author Biography

Jenny Linford is a food writer and author of over fifteen books including The Chef's Library, featuring the favourite cookbook choices of over seventy acclaimed international chefs, and Food Lovers' London, first published in 1991 and still in print. General Editor of 1001 Restaurants You Must Experience Before You Die, her work has appeared in Delicious, the Financial Times, Modern Farmer and the National Trustmagazine. A longstanding member of the Guild of Food Writers, she founded and runs Gastro-Soho Tours, offering personal guided tours around London's food shops. Travelling to Denmark, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore and Spain as well as travelling around Britain to meet producers including bakers, chocolate makers, asparagus growers, ice cream makers and farmers, The Missing Ingredient showcases the voices of the people she has encountered and championed over twenty-six years.